Economy

And just like that – and for no discernible reason – Britain’s period of enforced social isolation came, sort of, to an end. Schools in England are open once more. Public transport services are getting back to normal. Non-essential workplaces which promise to maintain a two metre distance between employees …

In recent days, the establishment media have begun the push to shape the post-pandemic narrative. The massive influx of state funding to prevent the economy from collapsing entirely will have to be repaid one way or another; and the SW1 crowd are determined to pass the bill on to someone …

In the cat and mouse game, we take 90 mice and release them into an enclosure. We then send 100 cats to go catch them. The inevitable result is that at least ten of the cats return without a mouse. Indeed, because a few of the cats turn out to …

There is a common fairy tale about money that goes something like this: Once upon a time there was a magic money tree which periodically rained money down onto households and businesses. Businesses used this money to pay the wages of workers and households used the money to buy goods …

The warm sunny days leading up to the Easter holidays are quickly fading from memory. Then, despite the threat of a global pandemic, there was optimism in the air. People came together in a manner not seen since the neoliberals seized the reins of power in the 1980s. It was …

If you thought you were having a Déjà vu experience this weekend, it might be because you’ve been reading about Remdesivir; the proprietary drug that its sponsors are desperate to convince you is a cure for the Covid-19 pandemic. The reason why media coverage of this drug should be ringing …

At 11.00am on 3 September 1939 Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. Within minutes the air raid sirens started wailing. Panicked civilians reached for the gas masks they had been issued with, and desperately sought shelter from the anticipated onslaught. A few – mainly middle class suburbanites with gardens, who …

The defining characteristic of the neoliberal global economy is that nobody is in charge. Decades of deregulation in the years since Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan came to power has resulted in a state of “depolitisisation,” in which governments have retreated from activities deemed to interfere with “the market.” Even …

New deliveries of eggs to British supermarkets are being snapped up as quickly as the shelf stackers can get them onto the shelves. At the same time, tons of eggs are going off in warehouses which currently hold massive stocks of food. The unexpected reason for this situation, we learn …

It should come as no surprise to learn that most of us are not included in the list of critical workers published by the UK government. Hedge fund managers, permanent secretaries, members of parliament, corporate CEOs, senior local government managers and the celebrities so beloved of our mainstream media all …